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Why Amgen (AMGN) Stock Is Up Today

Amgen,(AMGN) stock is up after the company said a late-stage study found that its blood cancer drug helped patients live significantly longer without the disease worsening, compared with standard treatment.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) are up 2.71% to $128.96 on heavy trading volume after the biotech company said a late-stage study found that its blood cancer drug helped patients live significantly longer without the disease worsening, compared with standard treatment.

The interim data released is for its injectable drug, Kyprolis.

In 2012, the FDA granted the drug accelerated approval for use in multiple myeloma, the second most common form of blood cancer, Reuters reports.

TheStreet Ratings team rates AMGEN INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate AMGEN INC (AMGN) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

The stock has risen over the past year as investors have generally rewarded the company for its earnings growth and other positive factors like the ones we have cited in this report. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.

AMGEN INC has improved earnings per share by 21.8% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, AMGEN INC increased its bottom line by earning $6.65 versus $5.51 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($8.32 versus $6.65).

AMGN's revenue growth trails the industry average of 36.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 10.7%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.

The gross profit margin for AMGEN INC is currently very high, coming in at 79.13%. Despite the high profit margin, it has decreased significantly from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 29.86% trails the industry average.